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Phil loved them, he really did. He loved them as if they were his sons. But it never crossed his mind that they felt the same. Sure they would sometimes say Dadza or something but that was purely a joke. They had their own parents, their own fathers. He was just their online friend. It only solidified this feeling when the flowers showed up.
It started during a stream. The chat was excited because it was a 4/4 Sleepy Bois Inc stream. They were playing Minecraft when he heard “Dadza!” from one of them. He felt a tickle in his throat. He muted quickly and started to violently cough. It was a minute before he fully recovered. Thankfully his webcam wasn’t working today so no one saw what happened.
“You okay Phil? Why’d you mute?” he heard Wilbur through his headphones.
“Oh it’s just a little cough mate.” He winced at his rough voice, he cleared his throat and continued. “I muted because I didn’t think you’d need to hear that.”
“If you need to end the stream because you’re feeling unwell, you can do that if you want.” Tommy’s voice was at a surprisingly low volume.
“Nah it’s fine, just might have caught a cold.” They continued the stream until Tommy said he needed to go. They said their goodbyes as Phil left the voice channel. As soon as he did though, he started to violently cough once again. This time he coughed up a single purple petal.
“What the fuck…”
Luckily Kristen wasn’t there because she was visiting family in America. Phil decided to do some research. He found a Wikipedia page that said ‘Hanahaki Disease’ and he clicked on it.
Hanahaki Disease
A disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. It ends when the beloved(s) returns their feelings, or when the victim dies. It can be cured through surgical removal, but when the infection is removed, the victim's feelings for their love(s) also disappear. The disease can be romantic or familial love.
Symptoms include:
Violent coughing
Coughing of blood
Coughing of petals and stems
One-sided love. Was his first thought. Seems like I was right. I can’t tell them though. What if they think I’m weird, what if they don’t accept me. I can’t handle that. His lungs burned at the thought. I’m not getting the surgery, I don’t want to forget them. I guess my only choice is death. Might as well spend as much time I can with them.
And he did. He did streams with them as much as possible. He could always hide his coughs pretty well by just muting. The others were getting concerned but he just blamed it on construction outside. He got away with it perfectly, that is until one day.
He was streaming with SBI again, this time they were playing Terraria. He wasn’t streaming because he didn’t want people to see him coughing on camera and them all finding out. He could feel the petals start to crawl up his throat and quickly muted his mic. He coughed for what felt like ages before petals of red, purple, and pink finally flew from his mouth.
“Phil?” Fuck. He looked at his discord and saw he didn’t mute at all.
He cleared his throat and spoke in a raspy voice, “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?” he could see Tommy’s worried face on his stream that Phil had pulled up earlier. The chat was also freaking out.
“Yeah, I’m all good, just a little cough.” Phil said.
“You call hacking up both your lungs a ‘little cough’?” Techno’s usual monotone voice had a hint of concern.
“Don’t worry,I was going to go to the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out, nothing to worry about.” Phil swallowed back petals that were creeping up his throat.
“Okay, as long as you’re getting help.” Wilbur sighed as they turned their attention back to the game. There was only the occasional time Phil had to mute himself to cough up the petals that were clogging his airways.
Since his Hanahaki was for multiple people, that meant that Phil’s was speeded up 3 times. This meant that only after a week from that last stream, he was now coughing up stems along with petals. Only a week until full flowers. This didn’t stop him from chatting with any of the SBI though.
Everything looked like it was going smoothly, nobody was going to find out about his nearing death. That is until he remembered that Kristen was coming home today. He rushed to pick up the flower petals that had been laying around. He cleaned the blood that was starting to stain his hands. He knew his act wasn’t going to last forever, but might as well make it last as long as he could. He told Kristen that it was a little cough and nothing more. She believed it until she saw Phil lying on the ground, red, purple, and pink flowers surrounding him. She recognized it immediately and ran over to him.
“You have hanahaki? And for multiple people?”
“Don’t worry, it's familial.” Phil chuckled which caused him to cough again.
“Well who are they?” Kristen asked.
“I can’t say…”
“No. We’re figuring this out, I’m calling Wilbur.” Phil opened his mouth but she was too quick for him to protest. He went to his computer where Kristen, who was in the other room, called him and Wilbur.
“Phil, tell Wilbur.” Kristen demanded.
Phil knew he should say it, because if he didn’t, Kristen would. “Um, I have hanahaki.” He said in his rough, abused voice. He could see Wilbur’s eyes widen.
“I’m getting Tommy and Techno.” Wilbur immediately called the two and got them in the voice channel.
“How’s it going guys!” Tommy’s voice blasted through Phil’s headphones, reminding him of a headache he forgot he had. It didn’t take Tommy long to see the solemn faces of his friends. “What’s wrong?” He spoke a bit more quietly.
“Phil has hanahaki disease.” Wilbur spoke up. Tommy gasped while Techno remained silent. At that mention, Phil started to cough. This time he was on camera, so the others could actually see how bad it was. The 3 colored petals were mixed with fully formed flowers, all of them wet with blood. It took a few minutes for it to finally stop. The fit left Phil wheezing as he paid back attention to his fami-friends. They all had a mixture of shock and concern on their faces.
“Phil, that’s the last stage!” Techno sounded genuinely panicked. “Who is it for! There’s still time!”
“It’s for three people…” Phil sighed, this was it.
“Three people!” Wilbur exclaimed. “Is that why you’re already in the last stage?”
“It’s familial love also.”
“Who the fuck wouldn’t lobe Philza Minecraft. I’ll beat the shit out of them!” Tommy tried to lift the mood. This made Phil’s lungs constrict. “Who is it!”
“I… it’s-” Phil couldn’t seem to get the words out.
“It’s okay Phil, I’m sure whoever it is loves you.” Kristen’s kind voice finally freed the words that were stuck in his throat.
“It’s- it’s you guys.” he whispered, tears falling now. “I- I know it’s stupid.”
“Oh Phil, it’s not stupid at all. Actually I think I speak for everyone here when I say we feel the same.” He looked up to see Tommy smiling.
“Can agree to that.” Techno had a sad tone in voice.
“I can’t believe you thought we didn’t love you.” Wilbur looked like he was crying.
Phil cried as he felt the flowers in his lungs wither away and he finally felt like he could breathe again.
“I’m coming to visit tomorrow. I don’t know if anyone else wants to join.” The voice was Techno’s.
“Yes.” Both British boys then started arguing about who was Phil’s favorite. Phil smiled, this was more like it.